General amnesty and denationalization of oil: Venezuela breaks with Chavismo

BogotáOutside El Helicoide, the headquarters of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service in Caracas, dozens of relatives of prisoners gathered this Saturday to await the release of their loved ones. As the afternoon wore on, a prerecorded message was broadcast over the phone in which Venezuela's new president, Delcy Rodríguez, announced a bill granting total amnesty to the political prisoners amassed in Venezuelan jails. The legislation covers "the entire period of political violence," from 1999, when Chávez came to power, to "the present." At the opening ceremony of the judicial year this Friday evening at the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) of the South American country, Rodríguez tasked the Commission for Judicial Revolution and the Program for Democratic Coexistence and Peace with approving the bill "in the coming hours." And there is little doubt that the bill will be approved shortly. Deputies loyal to the current regime hold a majority in the Venezuelan Parliament, whose head is the president's brother, Jorge Rodríguez. "I once again request the full cooperation of the Venezuelan legislative branch. May this be a law that serves to heal the wounds left by political confrontation, violence, and extremism. May it serve to restore justice in our country and peaceful coexistence among Venezuelans," he stated. At El Helicoide, described as a center of "torture" by NGOs and opposition members, everyone was crying. "Freedom! Freedom!" some shouted. "God is good. God has heard us," Johana Chirinos, the aunt of a prisoner, told the Associated Press.

El Helicoide, built in the 1950s as a shopping center, became a shameful symbol of Chavista repression in 2015. In 2022, a United Nations report stated that state security agencies had repeatedly documented the same practices and other human rights abuses. Now, overnight, the center will be transformed into a sports, social, and cultural center for police and residents of the surrounding neighborhoods, as announced by Rodríguez in front of officials accused of committing the atrocities described by former political prisoners.

The human rights group Foro Penal says it has verified 303 releases of political prisoners since the government's announcement a "significant number" of releases on January 8. But, according to the NGO itself, 771 are still behind bars.

Government officials, who deny having political prisoners and claim that those imprisoned have committed crimes, have confirmed that more than 600 people have been released, although the government has never provided an official list of how many prisoners will be freed or who they are.

Thus, Delcy Rodríguez has sought to put an end to years of repression in a single speech, even though she has held the interim presidency of the country for less than four weeks since Nicolás Maduro was arrested by US forces and transferred to a New York jail on January 3. The White House assured that the transition in Venezuela would proceed at full speed.

Hydrocarbons Law

The government of Delcy Rodríguez is holding negotiations with the administration of Donald Trump, who has made no secret from the beginning that one of his main interests in his intervention in Venezuela is to control hydrocarbons. "They took our oil rights; we had a lot of oil there (...) and we want it back," Trump stated clearly. Under the government of Hugo Chávez, the Venezuelan government seized assets from some US oil companies after the country nationalized its oil fields in 2007. But now, under Washington's tutelage, Miraflores is eager to comply with the demands of the Oval Office. Along these lines, the Venezuelan executive branch took another significant step this week. "In strict adherence to our Constitution, we unanimously approved the partial reform of the Organic Hydrocarbons Law. This instrument promotes the energy sector, with oil production in green fields, transforming it into well-being for the Venezuelan people," Jorge Rodríguez told the National Assembly. This reform eliminates Hugo Chávez's legacy and displaces the statism enshrined in the 2006 law, which granted a minority stake to any non-state participation. Opposition deputy Antonio Ecarri celebrated this oil "opening," which, in his view, demonstrates that Chávez's model was always flawed. At the heart of the reform is Article 22, which established that the exploration, extraction, collection, transportation, and storage of hydrocarbons were primary activities that only the Venezuelan state and companies with more than 50% state ownership could undertake. But the reform voted on this week modifies the article to allow private companies without state participation but domiciled in Venezuela to carry out these same activities. Immediately after the law's approval, the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued General License 46 related to Venezuela. "Authorization of Certain Activities Relating to Venezuelan-Origin Petroleum," the title read.